Apts., day care evacuated due to gas line leak in Oak Ridge

Oak Ridge Fire Chief Darryl Kerley said firefighters and Oak Ridge Utility District workers were at the scene of a gas leak Friday morning after a pickup truck knocked loose a gas supply line.

by Beverly Majors

Oak Ridge Fire Chief Darryl Kerley said firefighters and Oak Ridge Utility District workers were at the scene of a gas leak Friday morning after a pickup truck knocked loose a gas supply line.

Kerley said the two-inch natural gas line was broken off on the property of Broadway apartments near Jackson Square. “We isolated a two-block area and evacuated the apartments,” the chief said.

ORUD came to the scene, found the valve and turned off the gas, he added.

Battalion Chief Marty Griffith, who was the supervisor on the scene, called the incident “a major leak.” He said the supply line is a commercial-fed line, which is larger than the normal residential line.

Griffith said children coming to the United Church, Chapel-on-the-Hill Day Care Center “were kept out of the building” until the line was capped.

The truck rolled into the gas meter about 8:30 a.m. and the day care opens at 9 a.m., Griffith explained.

“We took advantage of that,” he said, by showing the children who were being dropped off the Department’s tower truck and using the time to do some educational work.

Kerley and Griffith said about 15 firefighters were at the scene for about an hour.